I The Stylistics of English Syntax
In English syntax is a most important part of style. Syntax is a branch of Linguistics dealing with the types of relations between words, word-combinations, sentences and larger units of utterances.
Syntactical EMs and SDs are based on some structural points in the utterance. It consists of a sentence or even a string of sentences. They are called stylistic syntactical patterns. They are regarded as variants of the general syntactical models of the language. So, deliberate violation of the syntactical norm, introduction of spoken syntactical norms will be perceived as a syntactical SD. Usually syntactical SDs are presented as the groups easily observable, even in isolation, as there is a kind of independence between the form and the content, i. e. between the syntactical structure and its concrete materialization.
In speech syntactical relations are realized in actualization of the variants of syntactical patterns.
Sometimes syntactical SDs play a decisive role in lending a stylistic effect to an utterance.
Syntactical SDs can be subdivided into the following groups:
SDs based on peculiar syntactical arrangement of utterances (Inversion, Detachment, Parallel constructions, Chiasmus (Reversed Parallel constructions));
SDs based on peculiar lexico-syntactical arrangement of utterances (Repetition, Enumeration, Suspence, Climax, Antithesis);
SDs based on peculiar syntactical connection of utterances (Asyndeton, Polysyndeton, the Gap-sentence link);
SDs based on peculiar use of syntactical (structural) meaning (Ellipsis, Break-in-the-Narrative (Aposiopesis), Question-in-the-Narrative, Represented speech, Unuttered / Inner represented speech, the Rhetorical question, Litotes).
As a rule the structural elements may be stood out. They are able to create sense even then, when they are materialized by nonsense elements.
II Syntactical Devices based on peculiar syntactical arrangement of utterances
Here we speak on Structural Syntactical SDs. They are closely connected with the intonation involved. Famous linguists underline interdependence between the intonation and syntactical properties of the sentence: | the more explicitly the structural syntactical relations are expressed, | the weaker the intonation-pattern will be | and vice-versa.
Very often sentences can be made emphatic only by intonation or by means of the syntactical patterns: P + as + it + is (Fool that I was!); It was …that / who… (It was she who loved me).
If word order is usual the English sentence is regarded as a neutral one (subject-predicate-object). Any other order of the parts of the sentence will 'impact on the reader. This sentence is an expressive one. Unusual word-order will have a modification of the meaning of the certain idea of the utterance. So, the main aim of the syntactical SD is to impact on the reader's feelings and emotions using special structures.
Inversion
This SD is based on the word-order, which is very important in the English language. The traditional word-order had developed a definite intonation design. Stylistic Inversion has the aim to attach logical stress, additional emotional colouring to the surface ['sə:fis] (первоначальное) meaning of the utterance. The i’nevitable feature of Inversion is it’s specific intonation pattern.
The rules of Inversion are:
the object is placed at the beginning of the sentence (Clever she is! A good weather it was!);
the predicative is placed before the subject (Women are not made for attack, wait they must);
the attribute is placed after the word it modifies (once upon a midnight dreary…).
So, stylistic Inversion is always sense-motivated. Inverted word-order is the form of emphatic constructions.
Some special inverted constructions are recognized in Stylistics as:
P + as + it + is: Brave that /as he was!
If only I could…
As…as (As stupid as an ox)
The role of the subject here is more psychological than a grammatical one. Any part of speech can be used as a subject. It depends on the context, on what the author wanted to say, to underline in the character / situation.
Parallel constructions
Parallel construction is SD dealing not only with the sentence but with the macro-structure, i. e. Super Phraseological Units. PCs are called syntactical parallelism.
The most condition here is identical / similar syntactical structure in two or more sentences or parts of a sentence in close relation.
Parallel constructions are often packet up by repetition of words, conjunctions and prepositions. But pure Parallel constructions depend on the repetition of the syntactical design of the sentence. PCs may be partial (1) or complete (2):
Old men in big-whiskers and top hats; old ladies in bustles and bonnets. Young men in drooping moustaches... Yong woman in small bustles and small flowery hats. And bridesmaids in white.
George Augustus did not know how to treat a woman; he did not know how to live with a woman; he did not know how to make love to a woman – in fact, did not know how to make a living …
The device of parallelism is used in different styles and is always sense-motivated. In emotive prose it is mainly used as a technical means in building up lexico-syntactical devices (Antithesis, Climax, Repetition, Enumeration). As similar syntactical structures are repeated in close succession (последовательность), PCs generates rhythm. That is why this SD is often used in poetical texts.
PCs perform two main functions:
semantic (suggest equal semantic significance of the component parts);
structural (it gives a balanced rhythmical design to the whole unit).
Syntactical Devices based on peculiar lexico-syntactical arrangement of utterances
Repetition (reiteration) [
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Repetition (reiteration) is never a mechanical repetition of a word or a structure. It is always accompanied by new connotations. The repetition stresses not the denotative but the connotative meaning.
The usage area of Reiteration is casual and non-casual speech, prose and poetry.
Repetition becomes an Expressive Means of the language when the speaker is under the stress of strong emotions:
“Stop! Don’t tell me! I don’t want to hear! I don’t want to know it! I don’t want to hear!”
But it is not a SD; it is a means to represent the exited state of mind of the speaker. When used as a SD, Repetition performs different functions. It doesn’t aim at making a direct emotional impact. On the contrary, the SD aims at logical emphasis necessary to fix the reader’s attention on the key-word of the utterance:
For that was it! IGNORANT of the long and stealthy march of passion, and of the state to which it had reduced Fleur; IGNORANT of how Soams had watched her, IGNORANT of Fleur’s reckless desperation… - IGNORANT of all this, everybody felt aggrieved. (J. Galsworthy)
Repetition is classified according to different compositional designs:
anaphora (the repeated word / phrase comes at the beginning of two or more con’secutive (последовательный) phrases: [a…, a…, a… .]
= If only he could surr’ender (уступать) to the thought:
“Let him goes – she had suffered enough!”
If only he could surrender to the desire:
“Make a slave on her – she is in your power!”
If only he could surrenders to a sudden vision
“What does it all matter?”
If only he could act on an impulse!
2 – epiphora (the repeated unit is placed at the end of consecutive phrases: […a, …a, …a]:
1) She loved only him, she wanted only him, she hated only him.
2) I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case as that. I am above the rest of mankind, in such a case as that. I can act with philosophy in such a case as that.
This type of SD stresses the final words of the sentence.
3 – The beginning and the end of the phrase are the same. They form the “frame” and here we speak about “framing” as a kind of Repetition [a…a]:
He had been good for me when I was a callow and an ignorant youth; he was good for me now. (Shute)
4 – The end of one sentence is repeated in the beginning of the following one – it is catch repetition […a, a…]:
For glances beget ogles, ogles sighs, sighs wishes, wishes words, words a letter…
5 – chain repetition is presented in the scheme […a, a…b, b…c, c…] .
6 – ordinary repetition – the repeated unit occurs in different positions. It has no a definite place in the sentence […a, …a…, a…].
7 – suc’cessive repetition – a string of units closely following each other […a, a, a…]. This kind of Repetition signifies the speaker’s emotions. It is the most emphatic type of Repetition.
Such SD as Repetition may stress monotony of action, hopeless, doom:
What is my work? People, people, people
What has my life been? Fag and grin, fag and grin. Turn the wheel, turn the wheel.
Repetition adds rhythm to the utterance.
Some phrases containing the Repetition express conti’nuity of the action. They have even become lexical units of the English: more and more, on and on, over and over, again and again…: The telephone rang and rang but no one answered.
Speak on phonetic stylistic devices in the text as a musical accompaniment of the author’s idea (alliteration, onomatopoeia).
The stylistic approach to the utterance
In certain type of communication the way a word, a phrase or a sentence sounds play an important role. In connected speech, in combination with other words a word may acquire a desired phonetic effect. The way a word sounds produced a certain impression, depends on individual perception and feelings.
I’d like to read you the words of well-known American linguist, who says: “…in human speech, different sounds have different meanings”.
The Russian poet B. Pasternak wrote that: “the music of words is not an acoustic phenomenon and does not consist of the euphony of vowels and consonants taken separately. It results from the correlation of the meaning of the utterance”.
So, separate sounds due to their articulatory and acoustic properties may awake certain ideas, perceptions, feelings, images. It is important to know that in poetry the arrangement of sounds carries a definite aesthetic function. Poetry is not entirely divorced from music. Unlike prose poetry is meant to be read out loud and it involves definite musical interpretation.
In linguistics there are some phonetic SDs which secure musical function.